By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Rabbi Suzanne Brody will hold a book signing for her murder mystery “Body on the Bima” at All My Friends Books, 51 Main St., Cortland, on Sunday, August 10, from 1-3 pm.
As a writer, Rabbi Suzanne Brody is best known for her books of poetry. That’s why her latest publication might come as a surprise: “Body on the Bima” (Silver Bow Publishing) is a murder mystery. Its narrator, Rabbi Shachar Whyte, and her b’nai mitzvah students are preparing to lead a Friday evening service when they discover a dead body on the bima. Along with Detective Misha Tara, Whyte tries to discover why the crime was committed and the name of the murderer.
Brody noted that she enjoys reading mysteries. “I’ve always felt that escaping into a cozy mystery is both fun and relaxing,” she said in an e-mail interview. “There’s a part of me that long wondered how people were able to write whole books like that since my poems and professional writing have always tended toward the shorter.”
Thinking of ideas for mysteries was originally a family activity. “Long before I ever started writing ‘Body on the Bima,’ especially on the walk home from synagogue on Shabbat, my husband and kids would happily brainstorm things that might be in a Jewish mystery,” she said. “When I mentioned some of my ideas to friends and colleagues, they were very encouraging, and when my schedule finally allowed for some concentrated writing time, the pieces of ‘Body on the Bima’ started to come together.”
Fans of the book will be happy to know “Body on the Bima” will not be the only work featuring Rabbi Whyte. “I don’t know if it will be a long series, but it’s definitely not just one book,” she said. “I’ve already started working on the next one with Rabbi Shachar Whyte and Detective Misha Tara – and have some ideas for a third that keep bouncing around.” 
Brody makes it clear in the book’s opening “Author’s Note” that this is a work of fiction. (She also writes that her book “is also not meant to be read as a solution to your problematic synagogue politics.”) The novel did not begin as a commentary on synagogue politics, though. “‘Body on the Bima’ actually started in my mind as a short story in reaction to a student who was petrified of participating in a class service,” she said. “At first, this was going to be a story about reassuring students stepping up to lead services. But that lesson got a bit buried when the idea of reassuring students juxtaposed with actually finding a dead body on the bima started to unfold.”
However, Brody does have some suggestions for those – volunteers and staff – who work in a synagogue setting. “I think that the biggest real-life lesson would be the need to really talk to each other and be transparent about decisions that are being made,” she noted. “I have a lot of both educator and rabbi colleagues who have shared their experiences with some of the issues I included in the book. Even though we know we shouldn’t do it, people talk behind each other’s backs, and small irritations turn into big issues. Board members and the professional staff don’t always have the same priorities and, at least based on what I’ve heard, almost every community has a few individuals who want to control everything.”
Brody used to be the director of education and youth programming at Temple Beth-El of Ithaca. When her contract was not renewed, she opened the Ithaca Beit Midrash and serves as its director. The change in position left her free “to focus on which aspects of the rabbinate and education were most appealing to me at the time,” she said. “I’ve always loved teaching Torah and Talmud, and am always looking to share some of the lesser-known aspects of our tradition.”
Some of her educational methodology is reflected in “Body on the Bima.” While she has not used the exact lesson plan featured in the book (during which students looked at photos of different locations and decided which ones they thought would be conducive to prayer), she has used similar ones. “[Shachar’s] method of teaching is very much based on my own,” Brody added. “I haven’t had students do that exact activity [featured in the book], but have done others that are similar. I’m a big proponent of using concrete, familiar things to get into deeper conversation. It’s often easier for a student to react to a prompt (visual, aural, textual, etc.) than to ask them to start off with sharing personal thoughts and feelings.”
For information about the Ithaca Beit Midrash, visit their website.